


Family Planning

by TheQueenofMirth



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Family Planning, Intimacy, POV Cardan Greenbriar, Post-Book 2: The Wicked King
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-12 21:02:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21482797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenofMirth/pseuds/TheQueenofMirth
Summary: When a couple has decided to stay together, it is necessary to discuss certain matters.Even if it makes Jude embarrassed.
Relationships: Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar
Comments: 2
Kudos: 227
Collections: Cardan Greenbriar





	Family Planning

I wake up as Jude frees her legs off mine. There is no need to open my eyes to know that it isn’t full night yet. My dear wife is an early bird. And, because of the way we sleep — entangled together — I’m becoming one too.

I roll over to her bedside, feeling her warmth on the sheet and her scent on the pillow. I hope they will give me good dreams. On my side, the mattress sinks. Jude isn’t going anywhere. She moves close enough so I feel her breath on my neck. Whatever she's doing, she doesn’t bother with my tail, which is alive with expectation.

Her fingers find the sides of my ear and they slip up to its tip. I think no one has ever touched me as she does. I know desire, voraciousness, greediness, sophistication and manipulation, but tenderness is new. My throat vibrates in response to the caress. She laughs at my purr.

I turn around and catch her waist. Before she realises it, I’m on top of her, holding her wrists. I inspect her. Her legs are bare from her toes to the top of the thighs with her nightgown raised to her hips. The ribbon of the neckline is unfastened, letting a nipple show.

I let my hands slide towards hers and intertwine our fingers, before sucking her nipple. Jude gasps, as mortified as she is amused. She rolls us again and we fight to be on the top. In the end, we have to settle for laying side by side — facing each other.

“What were you doing?” I ask while running my fingers along the rim of her ear imitating the caress that she had done.

“I was thinking about Vivi,” she says.

Her hair is a complete disaster, going in every direction, frizzy and wild. It’s charming. I take a strand between my fingers. “That is disappointing, I’m much more compelling.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Your ears are sharper than hers.”

Viviane, my new sister, has redcap’s blood mixed with mortal’s. While I’m descendant from Mab’s lineage, my blood is faerie as it could be. And then it occurs to me, this is a chance I have been waiting and dreading. “Our children's ears will probably be like mine.” I held these thoughts for too long and now the words come out more easily and smoothly than I expected. Is there a certain calm on finally take this step. “Maybe a little less pointy, but more than your sister's certainly.”

Her lock of hair slips between my fingers as she gets out of the bed. Her nightgown slides down, covering her legs when she stands, but it isn’t enough to satisfy her modesty. Jude takes the nearest robe to cover herself. It’s not hers.

I sit up asking myself if is the idea of children that she doesn’t want to bear or if it’s just my children. After everything we’ve passed though, maybe it is too much to expect that she would want to be the mother of children who would resemble me. I won't ask her to go through maternity if it disturbs her. It wouldn’t be fair.

Still, the rejection burns my chest. 

My first impulse is to give her anything she wants of me, just to not make her upset, as I did with my mother. This impulse is something I'm used to taming, but the next ones are harder. The second is to cause pain, as I used to do to my father. The third is to retaliate, as I did with everyone else.

But Jude isn’t Asha, Eldred or anyone else. She is my confidant, my companion, my lover — my love. I have no intention to let this relationship deteriorate as the others. “Jude, we can avoid things that can make you pregnant.”

She turns to me suddenly. “What?  _ No _ .” I get startled before I'm flattered. “I want you. I just don’t want to talk about it, ok?” Jude is a myriad of shades of red, uneasy and insecure.

I know it’s hard for her to talk about anything related to intimacy, but this conversation has been postponed for too long. “No, it isn’t ok. My father had five children, proving himself to be abnormally fertilite. A trait that I may share. And you are a mortal.” My heart races. I smile and it's not because she's making me nervous. “It’s not absurd to assume that we have more chances than others. So we have to discuss this.”

Baring her teeth at me, Jude closes the robe with an angry knot. She wants to look hostile, but I think she is alluring. I like when she bites. “We haven't even-” Jude pauses, but I know what she was about to say. Since we started living together, passion wasn’t something that we could contain. But, although we have done many things together, we haven’t done  _ everything _ . “What is there to be discussed?”

I lean back against the pillows wearing my most neutral expression. “Would you give birth to my children? Could you endure being their mother? Could you live with yourself then? Would you resent me for them? Would you ignore them when they seek your attention? If you have no desire for children, I’m sure mortals have the means to postpone them.”

Somehow I manage to offend her. “Do you think I would ignore my own kids?”

“They will resemble me more than you.”

“And, is that a reason?” My answer to that question is ‘yes’, but I don’t think she would enjoy hearing it. “No, Cardan. I wouldn’t ignore or resent our children  _ if  _ we have any.” And as if this strange thought had never occurred to her, she asks, “Do you want kids?”

_ Naive _ .

If she was Faerie, if she married a mortal, she wouldn’t be able to think about anything else. Some nights, while she is asleep, I place my hand over her stomach appreciating the possibility. There is some magic in the world that doesn’t belong to the Folk.

“Someday I will. Girls.”  _ With your eyes _ .

She half sits, half falls, in bed. “Girls? Do you want more than one?” Her eyes are on her hands and they are on her clenched fists.

I sit before her and take her hands. “If I get lucky.”

I need her to look into my eyes, but she doesn’t. She is lost in her own contemplation. “I would be a terrible mother.”

I kiss her knuckles. “I wouldn’t want anyone else.” She looks at me as if I was insane. But I have seen before how ferociously protective she is of her family. Even when they didn’t deserve her. “But, as much as I’m delighted by the idea of little girls braiding flower crowns to our hair, I presume I'm not ready for them to chase me with training swords.” She smiles at that, but I know she won’t like the next part. “And how it seems you never thought about having kids, I believe you should talk with Viviane’s suitor. Heather must know about how mortals delay conception.” The look on her face says she is as eager to talk about it with Heather as to volunteer herself as Queen of Mirth.

“I can send her a letter.” There is no promise in her words.

I slide my hands under her thighs and I launch her further onto the mattress. I lay on her. Before pressing my body against hers, her legs wrap tightly around me. “Just if you” I nibble her ear, “want us”, again, “to do”, again, “all the things”, and again, “we haven’t done yet.”

Jude grabs my scruff and pulls me into an exacting kiss. “One time,” she moans against my lips. “I can’t get pregnant on my first time.”

I grin. The way her eyes follow the corner of my lips delights me. “I’m sure that isn’t how it works, darling.”

**Author's Note:**

> Acknowledgements to Jackie, who edited this fic and supported me. 😭😭😭 Thank you!


End file.
